Limbaugh getting $38 million a year????

[Bob_Hudson]

Drudge Report sez: LIMBAUGH SIGNS THROUGH 2016; $400M DEAL SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS

 

[alg2468]

He deserves it for the revenue he brings to the hundreds of stations he is on. With talent on loan from God.

 

[RBA]

Thanks. Time to short sell Clear Channel stocks. ;D

 

[ajhenderson]

Thanks. Time to short sell Clear Channel stocks. ;D

Actually, time to do the opposite (not a recommendation, of course). The PE people can now rest assured their flagship talk money market isn't going anywhere, and that they can now bank on eight more years of the highest rates the show has ever commanded.

 

[MusicMaestro]

He deserves it for the revenue he brings to the hundreds of stations he is on. With talent on loan from God.

Dittos to that, alg! What many people don't realize, the ad revenue ALONE that Rush's show generates is more than compensate for the deal over time! And the ratings aren't bad, either! To think that in these days & times, for 20 years, the man has been responsible for Sean, M. Savage, M. Reagan, Ms. Ingraham, B. Cunningham, B. O'Reilly, & others to create a national presence for conservative thought, comment, and opinion! Think what you will of his politics, but he is the the king of talk radio, & like Mr. Savage said yesterday on his program, "a rising tide lifts ALL ships". Well done, El Rushbo!!

 

[jimwalsh2001]

..."a rising tide lifts ALL ships".

It works the other way too...I lost a gig at a talk station in Indiana in 1997 because the ratings fell short (the company had set a number and we just missed it). Believe it or not, the ENTIRE STATION's numbers had gone up, except for guess who...

...the man has been responsible for Sean, M. Savage, M. Reagan, Ms. Ingraham, B. Cunningham, B. O'Reilly, & others to create a national presence for conservative thought, comment, and opinion!

You could look at it another way: Limbaugh's success, deserved as it may be, is also partly responsible for the godawful sameness of what passes today for talk radio...

 

[Heater]

Limbaugh better hope Obama wins otherwise he will have a hard time justifying that salary. John McCain is just not a compelling figure whether Limbaugh takes up for him or attacks him. Nobody will care either way. I bet Limbaugh is donating to the Obama campaign.

It really goes for all Conservative talk radio. If John McCain wins they are toast. Not only will there be nothing to talk about but nobody will care what they say about him. There is no way they can make John McCain an evil Muslim, terrorist villain like they can with Obama. Their ratings would suffer greatly.

 

[WTUX]

Rush came to national attention during the George I days. Made it big time through Clinton and then became even more successful during 8 years of George W. How can McCain cause a problem? Rush has survived them all!

 

[Biz Listener]

Does anyone know for sure if those numbers aren't inflated or based on creative accounting? I recall reports of sports figures signing for $40,000,000 and it turns out they were given an annuity that, at maturity, would total that much, but the actual cost to the employer was far less. I've read reports of other multi-million dollars contracts that are based on very optimistic estimates of stock options.

Are they actually going to be putting deposits into his checking account that total $38,000,000 or was there some creative financial reporting going on to generate publicity and buzz?

 

[jh]

Only Rush and Premiere know for sure... but it's likely Rush is getting a percentage of the sales of his show, or the sales must hit a certain level for him to get the $38-mil.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

In any case, Rush isn't hurt by the high price of gas and food like many of his listeners are. It's one thing about him that comes across wrong or that he's lost touch with. He's worth millions (he'll never need Medicare, Social Security, or even health insurance), where many of his listeners are regular working Joe's do need those things. My guess is most of his listeners would not want to take a government handout, but there probably have been some who had no choice due to some hardship beyond their control. Yet to hear Rush go on about it, better to have your family go hungry than to seek help from the government. There's a balance and Rush doesn't seem to get that. As some folks have said to him on air, it's easy for you, if he's worth 38 million bucks than $4.00 gas and higher food costs may be an irritant, but certainly don't affect him as it does most of us. Even the higher taxes he constantly wines about won't affect him like it would most of his listeners.

I don't begrudge him the money, if Premeire and CC feel he's worth it then it's their money (and the free market at work), but when it comes to getting through hard times, he's not been there for over 20 years. Maybe like George Bush (41) when he went to the grocery store near the end of his term and was shocked at the prices, I believe Rush has lost touch with the real reality of the average American. I'm not saying libs have a better plan (they don't), but Rush could try a bit more to relate to his listeners who are having a hard time, as not all conservatives are millionaires, but are blue collar types. That may be what that one caller meant when she said to Rush during her conversation with him that he sometimes sounds like a limo riding Republican rather than the regular type of Republican.

 

[Evangelist]

Are you referring to President Bush the Father's infamous scanner incident? If so, what really happened was that the scanner he was being shown was capable of reading a broken UPC code which at the time was new technology. He HAD seen a scanner before, just not that one.

BTW, Presidents and their families do not shop for groceries like the rest of us partially because they don't have the time and mostly for security purposes. Food for the White House kitchen is never bought at the same place twice in a row for that reason. But the President is billed for food he and his family eat at their regular meals. State dinners, etc. are of course exempt from that.

I'm sure Rush Limbaugh has someone do his marketing if for no other reason than the likelihood he would be mobbed by fans or possibly detractors if he went to the nearby Publix.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

No one expects Rush to physically go to his local Publix, Acme, Piggley Wiggley, etc. as you're correct he'd be mobbed by both fans who'd want his autograph and by some libs who'd be throwing tomatos at him.

Poppa Bush did make some comment about how high food prices had gone during that trip to the suppermarket. He acted totally surprised like he had no idea that it was that expensive.

Yet when Ross Perot ran for President, he had an awareness of how expensive things had gotten, even though I'm sure he didn't go grocery shopping either, and as a Billionaire, wasn't affected at all as the regular John and Jane Doe American was.

All I'm saying about Rush is, some of his comments ring false as a wealthy person, these so called "kitchen table issues" don't really affect him. He should excercise a bit more compassion and understanding to those who may through no fault of their own are having a tough time of it right now. Not every one who gets government assistance is a welfare bum. I've been blessed that I've never needed any help that way, but I've got to watch my budget or I'd be in trouble quickly. I know people who've never been on welfare, who've worked their entire lives, but are truly struggling to make ends meet.

During the past 30+ years many good paying factory type blue collar jobs that made up the backbone of our society and created the middle class we have in America have gone overseas for cheaper labor and less environmental regulations (which is why Bush (43) was correct in not signing the Koyoto treaty and Clinton was wrong in pushing for Koyoto). Unfortunately the newer service type jobs, including radio don't pay as well as those old factory jobs. So even when those former factory workers get a new service type job, they are generally making half of what they were making before. I don't think that the safety net should be done away with, because many of these people will or have already needed that safety net to survive for a period of time. Rush sometimes sounds more like Ebenezer Scrooge as he worries about himself with all his millions having to pay a bit more in taxes that might help some less fortunate person survive or to get back on their feet. Being a conservative doesn't mean being selfish, and there is a difference.

 

[N_D_Radioguy]

Only Rush and Premiere know for sure... but it's likely Rush is getting a percentage of the sales of his show, or the sales must hit a certain level for him to get the $38-mil.

Remember, he owns the show and "The EIB Network."

It is licensed to Clear Channel/Premiere.

Rush -- the man -- is an employee of "Rush" -- the show -- and so are a lot of other folks who get paid out of that money.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I'm sure that even with a payroll, that Bo Snerdly, Dawn, and whomever else he has behind the scenes aren't making anywhere near that sort of money including what "Rush Inc." pays out for Social Security, and other payroll taxes for his employees, etc. My guess is, Rush still ends up getting the lion's share of the money in his pocket, which I don't have a problem with. In any case, he's not hurting financially in the least and doesn't seem able to relate to how tough things are for the "regular Joes" out there.

That doesn't mean that there may have been others in radio, who worked just as hard, but didn't do any where near as well as he did. They shouldn't be told, you didn't work hard enough and too bad, because I, the "mari-rushy", don't believe there should be any safety nets, because I don't want to have to pay any more taxes from my millions, etc. Things have gone well for me and I don't think I should have to help some incompetitant who didn't do things as well as I, your EIB host, etc.

If Rush had his way Social Security and the safety net would be done away with, because in his mind, it's a crutch, but when you need a crutch to pick your self up or to possibly survive, that's not a bad thing. We shouldn't hurt the honest hard working people who might need that help at sometime during their lives, because of the welfare bums out there who've abused the system. Simply bump the abusers out of the system when discovered they are abusing the generosity of the American people. Newt Gingrich and his Republican revolution did a lot to cut down on that abuse. So maybe more can be done now by the Republicans to cut back on even more abuse leaving a good thing for those who play by the rules if some day they ever need the helping hand.

Hey I like Rush, I listen often, but I simply believe he's dead wrong on this issue. This is where he should have used that other half of his brain that was tied behind his back.....

 

[Biz Listener]

I'm sure that even with a payroll, that Bo Snerdly, Dawn, and whomever else he has behind the scenes aren't making anywhere near that sort of money including what "Rush Inc." pays out for Social Security, and other payroll taxes for his employees, etc. My guess is, Rush still ends up getting the lion's share of the money in his pocket, which I don't have a problem with. In any case, he's not hurting financially in the least and doesn't seem able to relate to how tough things are for the "regular Joes" out there.

Few people who went through the kind of lean years that Limbaugh went through before striking gold with his talk show forget what those hard times were like. Rush wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I think that assuming that just because he has joined the nouveau riche he would automatically forget what it was like to be Jeff Christie on KQV, or to work in the front office of the Kansas City Royals.

 

[dfw3]

Limbaugh better hope Obama wins otherwise he will have a hard time justifying that salary. John McCain is just not a compelling figure whether Limbaugh takes up for him or attacks him. Nobody will care either way. I bet Limbaugh is donating to the Obama campaign.

It really goes for all Conservative talk radio. If John McCain wins they are toast. Not only will there be nothing to talk about but nobody will care what they say about him. There is no way they can make John McCain an evil Muslim, terrorist villain like they can with Obama. Their ratings would suffer greatly.

Well said. From the beginning Rush and his many copycats have capitalized on the extreme. In the early nineties Rush actually scored points by making fun of the homeless and their advocates. Without highly visible politicians to constantly demonise with a constant verbal flood of half truths and outright falsehoods, he and his disciples will have a hard time focusing.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

If John McCain should win the White House, then my guess is that Rush will simply continue to demonize Harry Reid along with Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat Congress. They are so inept that they make easy targets. If by some chance, the Republicans win both the White House and retake the Congress, then Rush will probably use his "bully" pulpit to try to get his fiscally conservative agenda moving in Congress (Rush is a fiscal conservative, not a moral conservative and that's where his focus is, on the money and he'll probably start pushing his millions of minons to call and write Congress to get things done, etc). Another guess would be that Rush will also find a way to keep the Clinton's on his show as his audience really likes to dislike the couple from Arkansas.

 

[Don62]

Few people who went through the kind of lean years that Limbaugh went through before striking gold with his talk show forget what those hard times were like. Rush wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I think that assuming that just because he has joined the nouveau riche he would automatically forget what it was like to be Jeff Christie on KQV, or to work in the front office of the Kansas City Royals.

One listening to his show wouldn't get that impression at all. I know. I was one of his first listeners. I remember his stories of eating potato chips for dinner, et. al.
However, Rush comes off as a cold S-O-B in matters Mike from Delaware so accurately described.

All I'm saying about Rush is, some of his comments ring false as a wealthy person, these so called "kitchen table issues" don't really affect him. He should excercise a bit more compassion and understanding to those who may through no fault of their own are having a tough time of it right now.

During the past 30+ years many good paying factory type blue collar jobs that made up the backbone of our society and created the middle class we have in America have gone overseas for cheaper labor and less environmental regulations (which is why Bush (43) was correct in not signing the Koyoto treaty and Clinton was wrong in pushing for Koyoto). Unfortunately the newer service type jobs, including radio don't pay as well as those old factory jobs. So even when those former factory workers get a new service type job, they are generally making half of what they were making before. I don't think that the safety net should be done away with, because many of these people will or have already needed that safety net to survive for a period of time. Rush sometimes sounds more like Ebenezer Scrooge as he worries about himself with all his millions having to pay a bit more in taxes that might help some less fortunate person survive or to get back on their feet. Being a conservative doesn't mean being selfish, and there is a difference.

Agree totally.

I really think it's pathetic how Rush thumbs his nose at callers who say the U.S. needs to protect its jobs, stop shipping them overseas, etc. Rush spouts, "But that's free enterprise. Any such steps would be protectionism (as if there's anything wrong with protecting your country)."

Right. Stolen technology by many competitive countries, as China does, pointed out by others.

I began to become turned off by El Rushbo when a caller told him how there aren't any TVs made in the US anymore. This was when Perot was running.

Rush pointed out a major TV brand, the one that used to have a plant in Springfield, Mo., and said "That's an American company."

The big boob knew nothing of what he was talking about. Look at the backside of the TV and note that it says "Made in Mexcio."

What a jerk and an elitist. Telling workers to go to h--- so he can save money on his taxes.

He sure doesn't sound like he was once poor.

Come to think of it, Rush has the elitism that Phil Gramm is inflicted by. And any kind of recession is "a mirage."